What if?
by marinesn
Summary: My first story so please leave a review. What if Jane had walked in later during 4x16? Frankie and Maura so if you don't like that don't read
1. Chapter 1

Summary: What if Jane had walked in later in 4x16...

As Maura touches Frankie's stitches she asks, "Does that hurt?"

Try to act tough, Frankie scoffs at that thought that a little cut on the lip would hurt. "No," he responds backing away from her touch. Noticing his slight wince and wish to act tough Maura laughs. Frankie chuckles with her but quickly sombers and takes her hand. Still smiling Maura feels his hand take hers and realizes how close they are.

Maura glances briefly at their joined hands before looking to Frankie. She see's in his eyes what she has assumed ever since the bomb scare. He really likes her. At first she wasn't sure if it was just a passing faze or if he really had feelings for her. He has been acting unusual towards her for awhile now but she thought nothing of it. Now looking at him she see's how wrong she was.

Frankie can tell that Maura knows how he feels. He can see her trying to understand what is going to happen next and what the implications may be. Knowing Maura for as long as he has, he knows he has to act fast or she'll start spouting facts about anything to distract him.

He lifts his other hand to cup her cheek and gently brushes his thumb along the curve of her cheek bone. As he starts to slowly lean closer to her his eye briefly glance at her lips, silently asking for permission. He stops short of her lips, begging her to take the final leap.

"Frankie," she whispers before finally leaning forward and touching her lips to his.

They are still for a moment, processing the change their relationship. It's Frankie who continues the kiss and Maura readily responds. As they get lost in the kiss they miss the door opening to reveal a surprised Jane.

Once they break for air, each breathing deeply and shyly smiling at the other. Neither has noticed Jane at the door and before having to witness another kiss, Jane closes the door and pretends she had just walked in.

Hearing the door slam shut breaks the two from their reverie, they turn to the door to see who interrupted them.

"I forgot my keys," Jane tells trying to hide the smirk currently gracing her lips. As she walks around them she noticed that neither moved away from the other, she grabs her keys and heads to the door. Before walking out she says, "Korsak and I are going to KAG if you'd like to come Frankie."

"Yeah, I'll meet you at the precinct," He responds.

"Okay, I'll see you two later than," she says before walking out.

Once the door closes they look back at each other, chuckling at the memory of Jane catching them, each knowing she saw more than she's letting on.

"We should talk about this," Maura tells Frankie.

"Yeah, but right now I have to go meet Jane and Korsak and you have a autopsy to do," Frankie states, but continues, "Once the case is over I promise you we will sit down and talk."

"Good, now, we really need to go to work," she says starting to disentangle herself, only realizing now that they've been wrapped in each other's arms the entire time.

Frankie puts the coffee mugs in the sink before walking to open the door for Maura. She pauses in front of him, confused to as why Frankie begins to ask her but in stopped by her lips on his. As they pull away Maura smiles at him before walking out the door. Once the shock of Maura kissing him out of the blue wears off, Frankie closes the door and catches up to her. Once they are side-by-side, Frankie takes her hand in his glancing down at her, only to see her smiling back up at him.


	2. Chapter 2

Authors note: I wasn't planning on doing a second chapter but since everyone who like the story wanted another one I decided to write another. Also, I realized my mistake in putting Jane in the list of characters however, I don't appreciate the negative reviews I received from people who did/didn't read the story and hated it solely because of the pairing. I clearly put in the summary that this was a Frankie/Maura story. Thank you to everyone who liked the story and gave me constructive criticism. And on to the second chapter...

As the day continued, Maura and Frankie would steal small glances whenever they thought the other wasn't looking. As they searched the senators daughters apartment Frankie brushed passed Maura, they each briefly paused sharing a short but meaningful glance. They were broken from their thoughts when Jane cleared her throat. Once they figured out what the victims tattoo meant the case began to come together and by late afternoon they had made an arrest. Frankie and Maura didn't see much of each other until Frankie was leaving Jane's apartment as Maura was walking up the steps.

"Frankie," Maura greeted softly.

"Hey," he said as a slight smile graced his lips.

"How's Jane?" She asks.

"I don't know, she wouldn't tell me but something is definitely wrong," he responded.

"I'm going to go talk to her but I'll call you once I'm done, I still want to have that talk," she say reassuring him.

"I'll be waiting," he says before walking toward his car.

When Maura walks into he best friend's apartment she didn't expect for Jane to share such big news with her. First she had to process that Casey wasn't coming home and Jane wasn't going to stay with him. Then when Jane announced that she thought she was pregnant Maura couldn't believe that she missed the signs. She is usually so good at telling when there is something wrong with Jane but she has been so caught up in everything that had happened with Frankie she hadn't been paying attention.

"Maura. Hello, earth to Maura," Jane said trying to get her friends attention, "Maura!" "What?" She said breaking from her thought process.

"I know what you're thinking and it's okay that you didn't notice," Jane said trying to reassure her.

"No it's not. I'm supposed to notice these types of things but I was too caught up in my own problems to notice what was going on with you."

"Maura, you had to work out your problems with Hope and now Frankie. I was too busy to even notice you were interested in each other, if I hadn't walked in on you today I probably wouldn't have even know."

"I just feel bad. You've been there for me with Patty and Hope and I haven't really asked about what you're going to do about Casey and when I did I tried to make you feel bad about."

"It's okay, how about we call it even, okay?" Jane reasons.

"That sounds like a logical agreement," Maura concedes.

"So what is going on between you and Frankie?" Jane asks.

"I don't know," Maura responds sitting down on one of the stools in defeat.

"Come on you have to give me more than that, but not to much, he is my brother," Jane says trying to lighten the mood.

"We are going to talk about it tonight. I told him I'd call him once I was done figuring out what was going on with you," Maura states vaguely.

"What are you going to tell him?"

"I have no idea, I thought I would know exactly what I wanted to do but I don't. I really like him and he's very attractive-"

"What did I just say," Jane interrupts her.

"But what if it doesn't work? What happens if we break up and it's a terrible break up? Then I loose you and your mom and probably Korsak and Frost. You are all the family that I never really had and I'm not sure that it is worth risking that for a relationship." Maura explains.

"But what if it does work? What if Frankie makes you happy and you fall in love and you end up getting married? Are you willing to be content and wonder what might have happened just to keep everything the same?" Jane asks.

As Maura thinks silently of the questions Jane just brought up, she wonders if maybe Frankie could be the one to make her happy. She's never had someone who stuck around and cared how she was doing. She had never thought that being in love with someone could be a possible outcome. Jane can tell Maura is now looking at every possible outcome but she may need one final push to get Maura to make a decision.

"You may not know this about Frankie but when he falls, he falls hard. He will fight for you but if your are going to make this relationship work you are going to have to fight too," Jane tells her.

Maura looks up to Jane for the first time since the conversation switched to her personal life. She doesn't say anything but Jane knows that she has come to her decision. Maura gets up to leave and before she closes the door she looks back at Jane, "thank you," she says before leaving.

As she approaches her car she pulls out her phone to call Frankie, "hey...I'm leaving Jane's now. Can you meet me at my house?...okay I will see you in a few, bye."


	3. Chapter 3

Authors Note: Sorry for the long delay, I just couldn't seem to get this chapter right and I'm still not completely happy with how it turned out. Let me know if you want me to continue. Please review.

When Maura got home she quickly feed bass, poured a glass of wine, and double checked to make sure Angela was gone. That was five minutes ago and she had been pacing around her kitchen for the last four minutes. As she paced she mused about what Jane had told her, she needed to be all in if it was going to work. Once Jane had told her that she had come to her decision. After a few more minutes of pacing and wondering whether or not she was making the right decision, there was a knock on her door.

To say that Frankie was nervous was a huge understatement. When Maura had called, he couldn't tell what she was thinking. He was terrified that she would reject him, but from there brief talk this morning and evening he held on to a sliver of hope that she would be willing to give them a chance. He quickly knocked on the door and the door immediately opened to show a nervous but smiling Maura.

"Frankie, come in," she said opening the door to let him in.

"Hey," he said once inside not knowing where to start the conversation.

As they walk further into Maura's home, she asks, "Do you want anything to drink?"

"No I'm fine," he declines as she takes a sip of her own glass of wine.

They lapse into silence, neither knowing where to start the conversation.

"I just-" "I want-" they say at the same time laughing slightly at the awkwardness in the room.

"You go first," Maura says.

"I want to give us a shot and I know we can make this work," Frankie tells her nervous as to how she'll respond.

"I talked to Jane. She said that when you fall you fall hard and I started to wonder what would happen if we didn't work. What if we had a terrible break up and ended up hating each other? I knew if we did work, you would have the support of all of our friends and your family and I knew I'd be alone again," she explained.

"Maura-" Frankie tried to interrupt.

"Let me finish," she said cutting him off before continuing, "Jane could tell that I was beginning to over analyze thing. She asked me if I would be okay with everything remaining the same, if I would be okay with wondering 'what if' and only being content for the rest of my life." She said before taking a deep breath and saying, "Then I thought, what if it works? I don't want to wonder about the 'what if's' for the rest of my life. I want to know," she said smiling nervously waiting for Frankie to respond.

"Thank god," he said before wrapping his arms around her, chastely kissing her before pulling her in for loving embrace.

Maura smiled into his neck as she felt him softly kiss her forehead. Maura pulled back slightly, still keeping her arms around him and softly kissed him. Before things could get to heated the side door opened.

"Maura? I got some groceries can you help me carry them in?" Angela asked too busy to see that she had interrupted the moment between Maura and her son.

"I'll get the rest Ma," Frankie said.

"Frankie, what are you doing here?" she asked.

He looked to Maura for help who shot him a look that said 'don't you dare tell her'. "I was just asking Maura if she knew what was up with Jane," Frankie lied.

"What's wrong with Jane?" Angela asked.

"Nothing, Frankie mistook her stress over the case as something more than it was, that's all," Maura explained.

"Are you sure? She has seemed a little off this past week," Angela wondered.

"I'm positive, I just got back from Jane's," Maura assured.

"Alright. Frankie are you staying for dinner?" Angela asked her son.

Looking to Maura he answered, "Yes," after she shortly nodded.

After dinner was finished, Frankie helped Maursa clean up the dishes and waited for Angela to leave.

"I think I'm going to head to bed. I'll see you both tomorrow," Angela stated.

"Night Ma" "Goodnight Angela" they both responded.

Once they saw the lights in the guest house go off Maura asks, "Do you think she knows?"

"Doubt it," Frankie assured her before leaning in to kiss her.

It didn't take long for the kiss to become heated. They both started to lead the other towards Mauras' room.


End file.
